This invention is directed towards beverage containers, and more particularly, to a compartmented container for the storage of liquids under pressure, such as carbonated beverages, and a closure for accessing compartments of the compartmented container.
Containers for liquids under pressure are limited in size due to the fact that the pressure means, e.g. a partially dissolved gas, escapes upon opening the container. As in the case of CO.sub.2 in a carbonated beverage, taste perception is thereby influenced and, upon repeated opening, the intended taste is substantially lost. Accordingly, there is a practical limit to the size of containers, that is, sizes in which content is consumed all at once, or at least, after a narrowly limited number of openings.
Both beverage distribution and public convenience would greatly benefit if pressurized containers could be of a "family size", as is the case for many other commodities for household use, e.g. cereals, detergents, vegetable oils, and others.
By subdividing the container with compartments the volume of the container is in effect subdivided into units, each of which is capable of duplicating the desirable carbonation retention of the aforesaid small containers, provided that a way is formed to maintain pressure in the compartment from which the beverage is not consumed, while dispensing it only from one compartment at a time.
Accordingly in this invention, means are provided to accomplish such selective and individual opening of the compartments while retaining pressure in the unopened ones.
Certain types of items such as salt and pepper, oil and vinegar, for example, are typically used together, and it was at times preferred to combine such items into separate compartments of a single container. Accordingly, multi-compartment containers exist which allow access to compartments thereof via a plurality of different types of closures. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,076,573 to Thomas discloses a multi-compartment bottle having a threaded neck portion adapted to engage a cap-like rotatable dispensing closure. U.S. Pat. No. 5,060,811 to Fox discloses a baby bottle divided into two compartments, a nipple and valve to selectively connect the valve to one or the other of the compartments. Additional embodiments serving the same purpose are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,665,816 to Anft; 3,211,315 to Greisinger, 3,358,818 to Davis, 557,352 to Bender; and 2,123,906 to Masbach et al. However, none of these containers are directed to maintaining its content under pressure.
There exists, therefore, a need for an improved closure for a multi-compartmented pressurized container which allows for individual access to each compartment thereof and in which pressure is affected substantially only in the compartment to which access is allowed.